First Half of Kosher Jesus -It's Good to Be Banned

I am half way through Shmuley Boteach's new book, "Kosher Jesus" and so far there is not much to report.

Basically the book says:
1. Jesus was a religious Jew
2. His original teachings were very Jewish
3. His teachings were perverted to appeal to Romans
4. The people who perverted them didn't like Jews very much

Rabbi Shmuley is upfront at the beginning of the book and throughout by reminding the reader that all of his "scholarship" is summaries of previous scholars who studied the origins of Christianity.

He quotes from Haym Maccoby so much that one might say that "Kosher Jesus" is an extensive review of Haym Maccoby's books.

The subject of Christianity is not one that I have spent much time studying, however, aside from the details, there is virtually nothing that I have read so far that I differs with my elementary school Yeshiva understanding of Christianity.

The big mystery so far is why the Rabbis who banned the book did so.  First of all, I thought everyone knew that the best way to get people to buy a book is to ban it.  Is it really possible that these Rabbis could be so foolish?

I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt.  It must be that they are friends of Shmuley Boteach and they are helping him market the book.  That is the only possible explanation that I can think of as to why they would ban the book.

They helped the book more then if they actually went out and bought a thousand copies themselves!